Abstract

Recent developments in solid-state lasers have led to the production of sub 25-fs pulses from Ti:sapphire oscillators and sub 50-fs pulses from Cr:LiSrAlF₆ oscillators. Residual cavity cubic phase error is often believed to be the factor limiting pulse duration. Techniques that have been used to reduce this error include reducing the length of the laser rod, using nonstandard prism materials, and including an intracavity Gires-Tournois interferometer. We show that for any choice of laser rod, prism material, and net cavity group delay dispersion (GDD), there exists a wavelength range where cavity cubic phase vanishes. Within this range, the exact zero cubic phase wavelength is dependent upon the ratio of prism material to laser rod material.

© 1993 Optical Society of America